


Five Times Ava Sharpe Almost Said I Love You Back but Didn't (and One Time She Did)

by iliveinfantasies



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/F, Five Times, I'm a nerd, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 12:53:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16408880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iliveinfantasies/pseuds/iliveinfantasies
Summary: “I’ve missed you,” she whispered, quiet and breathy and so, so not at all Sara. Ava blanched, a little, at how un-Sara-like it was. How off. How very, very not like it was before. Ava stared back for a second, hard, before licking her lips.--------Ava tries, she really does, to say it back. But it takes a while to get there.





	Five Times Ava Sharpe Almost Said I Love You Back but Didn't (and One Time She Did)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends, this popped up out of nowhere. I don't care if Five Times fics are like the candy of the writer world, I'm happy to get some cavities.
> 
> This popped into my head after watching the season premiere(!) right in the midst of my first chapter of my high school AU, and the coffee shop AU, and the angst fic I'm writing. Anyway, enjoy!
> 
> Also, come flail at me about Legends on Tumblr: iliveinfantasylife

It had taken Ava five days to gather her nerve. Five days since the Legend’s return from Aruba. Five days of paperwork—so, so much paperwork—attempting to explain not just the presence of a demon, itself, but the presence of a giant fluffy toy that had the audacity to  _ fight  _ the damn thing. Five days of thinking too much and trying to breathe slowly and far too much tea and analyzing every single syllable that fell from Sara’s lips, that day.

Exactly two weeks, since that day.

Sara and her team had slipped right back into it when they got back from their vacation, launching immediately into a mission that had them flitting from 1980’s London to the rise of Cleopatra in Egypt to the industrial revolution. Ava had overseen the missions personally, from a safe distance, where she could process all of her thoughts. But now, they were back in 2018, and Ava realized it was time to deal with all of the empty, hollow maybes that had been haunting her dreams. All of the unsaid phrases and little smiles and small touches.

It wasn’t the noise that hit her first; it was the smell. Metal, coal, sweat, and the unmistakable scents of vanilla and lavender, woven throughout. The unmistakable smell of her. Ava glanced up, and only then registered the sound of a time portal being opened.

Sara’s hair was disheveled, shoved into a messy ponytail, small strands escaping around her face. Her cheeks were flushed a little pink, as though she’d run the whole way over rather than portaled. Ava glanced down at her screen: fresh off a mission, yes, of course. The industrial revolution, then. Sara had changed, though not showered, apparently, and headed right over to the Time Bureau. Ava’s stomach dropped just a little at the thought. Her chest fluttered. Sara stepped over to the desk, and Ava stood up, hands clasped behind her back. Sara’s eyes were full of something Ava couldn’t quite place; something just a little cloudy. But they vast and blue and bright, like the sky after a long, long rainstorm, just before the sunset. A little mischievous, like they tended to be. Like they always were.

“Agent Sharp,” Sara said, nodding her head lightly. Ava’s chest tightened at the formality.

“Captain Lance,” she replied curtly, with far less conviction than she would have liked. Sara raised an eyebrow, then her face broke out into a soft smile. Ava felt herself relax, just a little bit. Sara took another step forward, stepping around Ava’s desk, now just a couple feet away. Ava froze. Sara looked Ava up and down, observing, taking in. Ava felt oddly exposed, as though Sara could see straight through her skin. Sara let out a long breath.

“I’ve missed you,” she whispered, quiet and breathy and so, so not at all Sara. Ava blanched, a little, at how un-Sara-like it was. How off. How very, very  _ not  _ like it was before. Ava stared back for a second, hard, before licking her lips.

“What?” she croaked out. She winced.

Sara ran her fingers through the top of her hair in frustration, catching on her ponytail, wincing a little as a few strands got caught on her rings. “I..didn’t really mean to come in here and say that,” she said, with a wry smile. “Not gonna lie, I was going to try to play it cool, but.” She lifted her shoulders in a half-shrug. Ava raised an eyebrow.

“You always do, don’t you.” Then quickly regretted it. The snarky commentary came naturally with Sara, still somehow.

To her relief, though, Sara laughed. Quietly, still very softly, but a laugh, and the sound of it was bright and calming and light, and Ava hadn’t realized how much she had missed it.

“I missed you,” Sara repeated, more loudly this time. She looked Ava up and down. “You and your poly-blend pantsuits.”

Ava scoffed. “Poly-blend? How little you know me, Miss Lance.” Sara’s eyes glittered, wickedly, all trace of cloudiness gone. Her soft smile grew into a grin. She stepped over until she was just a few inches away from Ava, now. She crossed her arms and leaned against Ava’s desk.

“Then how about I get to know you even better?”

They were flirting, and the banter felt good, felt right, felt like it did before--

Ava shook her head, a little, hoping Sara wouldn’t notice. Forced the thought down, further, further into her chest. Forced herself to focus on other things. Like her manufactured heartbeat. Her manufactured breaths.

Like a quick, wide smile. Like a delicate spread of freckles across pink-tinged cheeks.

Like— _ oh. _

_ Like the taste of her lips, the feel of them against Ava’s own. _

Like  _ her _ , finally, finally, right here. Right now.

Sara pulled back, and away, and Ava pressed out a breath through her lips. Inhaled the sweat and coal and vanilla and lavender. Sara cupped a hand around Ava’s cheek, nose wrinkled, smiling crookedly, softly.

“I guess missed that, too,” she said, glancing at Ava through her eyelashes. 

And even as Ava’s blood was coursing through her veins-like-waves and her lips were tingling, electric, from Sara’s touch, she knew, somewhere, through the clouded fog of kisses and I-miss-yous, that everything wasn’t better. Everything wasn’t just alright. There were  _ demons _ between them now, the kind you couldn’t kill, couldn’t lock away behind some invisible wall.

But she was  _ here _ , and she was standing in front of Ava, cheeks more flushed now, eyes glowing, affection and heartache and anxiety and love and love and love radiating from every pore.

Ava let out another quick breath.  _ I love you too. Iloveyouiloveyouiloveyou.  _ But though She felt as the words broke through the walls of her heart, peeled back the layers of muscle and bone, forced their way into her bloodstream and prickled through her veins like fire, no amount of coaxing, pleading, coaxing them through her throat and pressing them into pliability on her tongue, could make her actually release them into the air.

So she smiled, instead, swallowing down the lump of words like too-much-air, and leaned over to press a kiss to Sara’s cheek.

“Yeah,” she whispered, breathing the words like a prayer into Sara’s skin.

“Yeah, me too.”


End file.
